BOISE, Idaho — Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador has issued three back-to-back press releases covering state abortion law, the University of Idaho’s $685 million acquisition of the University of Phoenix, and Biden’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Lava Ridge Wind Farm project.
On December 2, Labrador announced that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s injunction in Matsumoto v. Labrador. The injunction by the lower court had barred the enforcement of an Idaho statute known as an “abortion trafficking” law that went into effect on May 5, 2023. The law prohibits the procurement of an abortion by harboring and transporting minors with the intent to conceal the abortion from the minor’s parents. The Ninth Circuit decision said that the substantive part of the law is likely to be found constitutional and can be enforced while litigation proceeds.
“This is a tremendous victory for Idaho and defending the rule of law as written by the people’s representatives,” said Labrador. “Idaho’s laws were passed specifically to protect the life of the unborn and the life of the mother. Trafficking a minor child for an abortion without parental consent puts both in grave danger, and we will not stop protecting life in Idaho.”
In a December 5 release titled, “Attorney General Labrador Wins Sweeping Reversal at Idaho Supreme Court for University of Phoenix Case,” the chief law enforcement officer in Idaho announced that the Idaho Supreme Court overturned a ruling by Judge Jason D. Scott on a complicated case involving the University of Idaho’s controversial and expensive bid to purchase the University of Phoenix.
“After fourteen months of working to ensure transparency, this is a comprehensive win for the people of Idaho and the principles of open government,” stated Labrador. “We maintained that the lower court’s ruling undermined Idaho’s Open Meetings Law and set a dangerous new precedent for subjective belief instead of objective fact when determining if a meeting should be accessible to the public. The Idaho Supreme Court agreed with my office on all three of the major issues raised and protected the right of the people to know exactly what their government officials are doing.”
“Contrary to the Open Meetings Law’s preference for sunshine, the district court’s reading of the preliminary negotiation clause effectively cloaks all negotiations and actions taken prior to a final public vote in shadow by broadening the very exceptions that the legislature required be narrowly construed…[A]s applied in this case, the court’s discovery rulings not only hampered the Attorney General in performing its statutory duty to enforce the Idaho Open Meetings Law, I.C. § 74-208(5), but it also concealed the details of what transpired at the meetings from public view,” wrote Idaho Supreme Court Justice Gregory Moeller in the majority opinion.
On Friday, December 6, Labrador expressed strong condemnation for the Biden Administration’s continued pursual of the Lava Ridge Wind Farm project in south-central Idaho amidst ongoing lawsuits and intense public opposition, including universal rejection by top state officials and Idaho’s congressional delegation.
“The Biden Administration’s Bureau of Land Management released its Record of Decision…for the Lava Ridge wind power project, despite widespread opposition from a myriad of Idaho community interests,” stated the attorney general’s release. “The Lava Ridge project would place hundreds of wind turbines in Idaho’s Magic Valley, towering at some 660 feet high, on 38,000 acres in Jerome, Lincoln, and Minidoka Counties. This project, owned by an East coast power consortium, would primarily be shipping generated power to California.”
“Idaho has spoken very clearly in opposition to this project,” said Labrador in the Dec. 6 release. “The Lava Ridge project is a jewel in the Biden Administration’s Green New Deal crown and the Administration is moving ahead regardless of the damage to Idaho farms, ranches, rural communities, agricultural aviation, water supplies, wildlife, and historical sites. We will keep fighting this attempt to blatantly ignore the voice of Idahoans.”
Biden’s continued actions to force the Lava Ridge project onto the citizens of Idaho appears to be his administration’s final parting gift to the people who overwhelmingly rejected his policies by reelecting President Donald J. Trump. The project has been nearly universally opposed by every demographic in the state, including state and local officials, farmers, ranchers, environmentalists, hunters, water users, tribal nations, aviators, historians, archaeology groups, and advocacy groups like Friends of Minidoka that represent the shameful history associated with the unconstitutional incarceration of Japanese-Americans in World War II.
BLM operates within the Department of the Interior, which will soon be under the leadership of Governor Doug Burgum, a successful businessman whose governing policies have brought about an economic boom to North Dakota. Trump announced his nomination of Burgum on November 14 during a celebratory gala at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Readers can learn more about the Lava Ridge Wind Farm project by going to https://www.minidoka.org/lava-ridge.
